What They Don't Tell You About The Undead - D&D

As someone who have fought Shadows in 3.5, Mixing salt into a vampires gravedirt so they become shadows DOES NOT better the situation

I know it sounds paradoxical to create a living zombie, but the origins of zombies, from the culture that developed Voodoo as we know it now - their method of zombie creation was literally the control of a living human, like putting them in a permanent hypnotized state, where they could only follow basic commands. Thus very slow to move/react.

Rhexx: "Creating undead is always an evil act." Archliches: "Bruh..."

Just want to add that back in the early days, alongside level drain and other nasty effects: a) undead moved silently in dungeons b) darkvision was based off of heat signatures (infravision)

D&D: Where we even have lore to explain how the undead dramatically break through their graves and coffins.

Reasons why I really like Undead as foes in my games: 1) Low maintenance: The dead don't need food, water, air, light, or rest. They don't form unions, seldom complain about poor working conditions, and are scary as shit. 2) The dead make great inhabitants for abandoned castles, remote keeps, underground dungeons, and generally any place where you don't want to have to explain how the bad guys live. 3) LOTS of book and film lore to draw from! All you have to do to describe an undead horde is flash pics from Army of Darkness or just about any Ray Harryhausen film. 4) Availability. Need recruits? Find any cemetery or ancient battlefield. Some will come with their own gear!

What most people never realize, undead are the most extreme of extreme sports enthusiasts. When the Wild Ride comes, all the undead arise with their skateboards to join, and only the bravest of mortals dare to impede them.

One of the most memorable moments I have ever had in D&D was when our DM brought back one of the player's paladins who had died like 3 months ago real word time (he had talked to the player and got their okay first) as the death knight minion of the big bad. That was a real jaw drop moment.

I’ve always loved undead but the 5e necromacer wizard really needs an overhaul, or better yet we need a class specifically dealing with raising and buffing the dead. I’d also love to see a Paladin that harnesses negative energy. PS cannot wait for a hobgoblin video.

I always allowed characters to eventually regain lost levels from energy drain at an exponent rate per week. For example if you lost 2 levels it took 4 weeks of rest to get the levels back. Three levels was 9 weeks etc. This allowed the undead to be a menace and allowed them to create new undead, but gave players a chance to recover what they had rightfully earned. This allowed the effects of an undead attack to effect a module or even a campaign. But in the end players could recover what they had earned given enough time. That seemed fair to me.

Of course the best anti-strahd, SALT

Oh boy- So you're telling me that if I were to play a gnome cleric who runs around throwing salt at people, he would eventually be super useful? Sweet!

It's honestly really cool how undead used to be super dangerous in that they permanently weakened your character, it would make fights with skeletons and zombies a whole lot more terrifying if that was still the case.

I really appreciate the older versions of Undead. Yeah they were a pain in the ass to fight but you knew you were in for a fight. It also meant my cleric characters would be totally Kick-Ass.

14:10 Just imagine some old man/lady sweeping their doorway when they throw salt over their shoulder and hitting a Lich that was walking down the street disguised and having the area the salt landed on burst into blue flames and partiality revealing his undead form beneath... What would you say to try and get out of this situation Alive?

Ah, undead. One of my favorite things. Hell, one of my first questions about any fantasy rpg is; "can I be a necromancer?" Not too keen about necromancy in DnD 5e though, at least when it comes to undead minions. Luckily, I love the necromancer that doesn't use undead minions too, and reflavoring is a thing.

First is was Orcus, now the undead, thank you so much for covering my favorite things in Dungeons and dragons!!!!

Old undead skills sound more like antiliving.

Now I see everyone's fascination with the undead, I could see most things mentioned in this video being incredibly fun in a campaign! Isn't there some kind of earth telekinesis or something in D&D? You could use that to mix salt with the vampire's grave dirt, right?

I love the idea of undead being any alignment... so... in theory... you could have a town of friendly zombies or skeletons just hanging out and doing stuff like farming... heck you could even have these zombies hire heroes to accomplish tasks for them